Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I'm doing my Wild at Heart Show in Belfast this Friday evening as part of the Ulster University Mountaineering Clubs Intervarsity event. It's open to the public and takes place at the Holiday Inn Hotel in the Olympic Suite at 8pm. I'll be talking about my various trips to Alaska together with Adventures in Range West, Torridon and Austria.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

This Saturday I'm off up to The Climbing Academy, Glasgow to do my new 'Wild at Heart' show. It had its first outing last weekend at TCA in Bristol and seemed to go down very well. I've a big section on my various trips to Alaska which included perhaps my most novel trips. 47 hour single push on one route, vertically pitched tents on another. Alongside that I've a look at where this adventurous streak came from and several films and tales from recent entertainment in Austria and of course the North West of Scotland.

Mefinding a sneakywaythroughonthecruxandrelievedthatmybicepisholdingtogether.

200m or so downtothestartoftheroutewithMordor in thebackground.AbseilingdownMordor in thenightrequiredmy alpine 'A game' asthepreviousteammusthavehad 65m ropestoplacetheirabalakovs. Attheendof a longday I hadmorebruises, somefrostnip in my toes (it was -20c or so all day) but most importantly of all a life affirming Big Tick!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Beginning to get up to speed here in Austria. Yesterday 'got involved' as my friend Timmy would say with this cheeky number. Short bit of scratching followed by a few lock offs to get established on the ice...Luckily leading to a resting ledge then a surprisingly steep finishing 20metres.This was today's mission - Gasteiner Wasserfall, right in the middle of Bad Gastein, viewable from the main street and therefore a potential for much public humiliation! Luckily I managed to excavate my way through the icicles of the first pitch....and neil did the business on the top chandeliery column

Monday, February 6, 2012

I've a lecture coming up in just under two weeks at the Climbing Academy in Bristol. 8pm on the 18th Feb - I'm working on a few new things to build into my show, which I've titled Wild at Heart. I want to take a good look at why adventure is so important to us. So there will be new images, stories and videos. For more info and tickets see the TCA website